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Thursday, April 28, 2011

El Palmar is a large site in southern Campeche about 50 km east of Calakmul. Although the extent of the site is not fully known, it does have 2 pyramids about 40 m tall, which makes it quite a monster. It was investigated in the 1930s by none other than Sir Eric Thompson himself, but the results were never fully published. At the time, El Palmar had the largest number of stelae of any Maya site, although Calakmul now holds that honor. El Palmar was explored some years ago by Carlos Brokmann, but not very intensively. It is currently being explored by a graduate student from the University of Arizona, Kenichiro Tsukamoto. They have uncovered and conserved a new hieroglyphic stairway, as National Geographic reports. This nice article is written by a distinguished Salvadoran archaeologist. This news has gotten surprisingly little coverage, so I thought I should mention it.

Here's the URL if you prefer to cut and paste it: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2011/04/25/the-meaning-of-words-new-evidence-of-ancient-maya-history/